Are you glad in your faith?

For the last few columns we’ve been trying to follow Blaise Pascal’s advice about persuading the sceptical.

Before his death in 1662 he suggested that we make people of good will ‘wish it were true, then show them that it is.’ I promise we’ll move on from this Pascalian perspective next month, but allow me one last word on the subject. In this column it’s very much a case of ‘once more with feeling.’

Because here I want to take Pascal a step further. Let me remind you of his advice in full: